Trolley for electric vehicles.



T. VARNEY. I TROLLEY FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 22, 1908.

' Patented Aug. 31

WITNESSES:

so pport.

UNITED STATES PATENT orricn THEODORE VABNEY, 0F PITTSBURG, IENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0

WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC & MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF EAST PITTSBURG, PENNSYL- VANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

TROLLEY FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 31, 1909.

Application filed-April 22, 1908. Serial No. 428,549.

To all whom'it may concern:

, Be it known that LTHEononE VARNEY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State at Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Trolleys for Electric Vehicles, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to trolleys for electrically-propelled vehicles, and it has for its object to provide. a simple and durable device for use in connection with a'trolley of the well-known pantograph type whereby the pressure exerted between the contact member and the supply conductor may be made automatically dependent upon the speedat which the vehicle is operating and upon the height of the trolley wire above the vehicle.

In my co-pending application, Serial No. 296,318, I have illustrated a trolley of the so-called pantograph type having a sliding contact shoe'and a supporting frame comprising a double pantograph or lazy-tongs structure, and a spring which tends to hold the contact member in engagement with the supply conductor. \Vhen trolleys of this type are operated at relatively high speeds, the contact member tends to become temporarily separated from the supply conductor on account of the inertia of the moving parts and the unavoidable irregularities in the suspension of the supply conductor. This tendency may be minimized by increasing the pressure tending to hold the contact member in engagement with the supply conductor, but the overhead trolley conductor is often dropped downward in passing through tunnels or under bridges until the distance between the top of the car and the wire is materially decreased. In order to follow the conductor, in such cases, the contact shoe is, of course, forced downwardly and the pantograph is automatically adjusted in opposition to the spring which tends to raise the contact shoe. The increased pressure which is created in this way is likely to cause grooves or furrows to be made in the contact surface of the shoe and, undesirable bends or kinks to be made in the trolley conductor near its points of According to .my present invention, I provide an auxiliary device which is dependentupon the speed of the vehicle and the height of the conductor'aloove the vehicle for automatically assisting, to a greater or less degree, the spring-pressure which holds the trolley shoe in engagement with the supply conductor. By the use of this device, it is, therefore, possible to operate satisfactorily with a much weaker spring pressure than would otherwise be required.

Figure 'l of the accompanying drawings is a side elevation of a pantogra-ph trolley equipped with wind-vanes which constitute theimprovement of my present invention. Fig.2 is a front elevation of a portion of the device shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a view, similar to Fig." 2, of a modified form of wind-vanesubstituted for thatshown in the other figures.

Referring to the drawings, the device illustrated comprises a sliding contact shoe 1 which is mounted upon a double pantograph supporting structure 2' and is held in engagement with a supply conductor 3 by means of a spring 4:.

.The pantogra )h structure comprises the usual arms 5, 6, and 8, arms and? constituting the upper and arms '0 and 8 the lower half of the frame. At the hinge connection between the upper and lower arms,

wind-vanes 9 and 10 are pivotally mounted preferably constructed of sheet aluminum or' some other substance \\'lll(l1 1s strong and light, and they may be of circular form, as indicated in Fi 2, or of rectangular form, as indicated in ig. 3, or'ot': some other out line, since the shape is immaterial to my invention.

Pantograph supporting structures for trolleys, as usually constructed, also comprise cross-rods 11 and 12 which are located at the joints of the frame and, with these structures, the wind-vanes may preferably be hung onthc side rods near the middle joints or on the cross-rods 11, two or more being employed on each cross-rod, as shown in Fig. 2. or a single one extending throughoutthe whole length, as shown in Fig. 3.

The action of the wind-vanes is as follows: Assuming that the trolleyillustrated in Fig.

against the wind-vanes 10 and will f rce them against the lower arms 8 ot' the frame I be e'tlected Within the spirit and cope oi and tend to increase the pressure exerted by the contact member 1 upon the conductor 3.

i The Wind-vanes 9 will be -forced into a plane substantially parallel to the direction of travel so that they will offer little or no resistance t0 the Vehicle motion. hen the vehicle is traveling in the reverse direction, the wind-vanes 9 Will,-of course, be active 10 and the wind-vanes 10 will occupy horizonta l positions.

' The normal height of the trolley conductor above the vehicle is such that the pantograph is considerably extended and the angle formed between the upper and lower arms of the pantograph structure is relatively'large. v This Will obviously keep the active windvane in a lane Which is so nearly vertical that a maximum force will be exerted to increase the pressure between the trolley shoe and the supply conductor. When the pantograph frame is adjusted, as shown in Fig. 1, to accommodate it to a relatively low supply conductor the Wind-vanes-will occupy a more oblique position and, consequently, if the speed of the vehicle is maintained substantially the same as that at which it normally operates a portion of the air will be diverted and the component of forces tending to raise the contact shoe will be considerably less.

It will thus be' observed that the pressure which is normally determined by the spring when .the vehicle is at rest is dependent, when the vehicle is in motion, upon the speed and upon the height ofthe trolley conductor above the vehicle.

Since various structural modifications may my invention, I desire that only such limitations shall be imposed as are indicated i the appended claims.

I claim as my invention: 1. In an electrical vehicle, the combination with a supply conductor and a current collector having 'a pantograph supportiin frame, of wind-vanes pivotally suspended "from the respective ends of said frame and dependent upon the speed of the vehicle and the height of the supply conductor above the vehicle for varying the pressure exerted upon the conductor by the collector.

2. A trolley for electric vehicles comprising a double pantograph supporting structure and a contact member secured thereto, means for expanding the supporting structure, and wind-vanes pivotally suspended from the ends of said structure.

3. In an electric vehicle, the combination with a supply conductor, a trolley con'iprising a double pantogra iih supporting structure and a contact member secured thereto, oi means for exerting a pressure between the contact member and the supply conductor, and wind-vanes pivotally supported upon the ends of said structure to assist in the adjustment. oi the pantograph structure in accordance with the speed of the vehicle.

In testimony whereof, l have hereunto 

